Here at the Blue House*, the Spring Equinox is an occasion to honor Arianhrod, and in keeping with my desire to come up with hearth traditions, we made a meal for the occasion, with a Welsh dish called Anglesey Eggs as the centerpiece.
I started the day before, with homemade slow-cooker mashed potatoes using Yukon Golds and lots of Irish butter and garlic salt. Yum! I also boiled a half dozen eggs, and dyed them in blueberry juice. They turned out quite lovely, though I forgot to crackle them ahead of time so the colors would seep through! Oops.
The day of our celebration, I sautéed some leeks in more of that lovely Irish butter with some more garlic… and then realized that it was going to be impossible to mix them into the cold mashed potatoes without heating it all the way up first… oops again. So instead, I just put them on top of the mash, and put the sliced boiled eggs on top of those.
I’d had grand plans for roasted lamb or a lamb meatloaf, but couldn’t find what I wanted in a price range that would fit our tight budget, so instead I browned about a pound of ground lamb in a skillet with some herbs (mint, rosemary, savory, and thyme) and then sprinkled that around the eggs before I added the cheese sauce and bread crumb topping. It was DELICIOUS.
I am definitely doing this again next year, though hopefully with lamb meatloaf! I had also planned on making welsh cakes with currants but I ran out of time and energy, alas. Next year, for sure!
Once the casserole was hot through and all the cheese was melted, we brought it to the table and served each of us a plate, with one on the side for Arianrhod, as our esteemed guest for the occasion. We also opened a bottle of bubbly and poured everyone (except the baby) a glass! When the food was served, I read aloud a prayer I had written for the occasion:
The Spring Equinox has arrived,
And the days are now as long as the nights.
The Plants are awakening from their slumber,
And green things are growing again!
No more is Spring only a promise of things to come,
But not yet is the world awash in flowers.
Here we are at the balance–
Mid-Spring, between Midwinter and Midsummer!
And on this day we honor Arianrhod,
Lady of the Silver Wheel, who dwells in Caer Sidi.
Come to us now, and join our celebration!
We offer you food, and drink, and merriment!
We ask in return for your blessings:
Help us to grow and to manifest the seeds we have planted.
ARIANRHOD, HAIL AND WELCOME!
And that was pretty much it! Good food, good drink, the family together. We shared the meal with our house spirits, we poured some drink for our other gods, and had ourselves a homey little celebration of the turning of the seasons.
How was yours?
[…] our hearth cult, the Spring Equinox is Arianrhod’s Feast Day, and last year I shared a prayer I wrote for the occasion. We used that prayer again, and made the same meal, though this year I didn’t dye the eggs, […]